Firstly, I'm so sorry I didn't update when I said I would.... as I said on my profile page, Document manager was down and then I've been away for the past 12/13 days... so I'm sorry! But really it's all fanfics fault...!

This chapter is not as sad as the first, but verging on it.... I re-read it when I got home after not seeing it for two weeks and I actually amazed myself with how well written it was (for me)! So I hope you enjoy it...

The children: Aragorn and Arwen's children (excluding Eldarion) I invented in a fic I am currently writing (see my profile page), which will be up fairly soon... their descriptions were not necessary but I put them in anyway.... Also, time has jumped because in my next fic A/A have the children a few years after they're married, but in this they are only young when A/A die... so just pretend the two fics aren't related (even though I use the same children).... get it? Good, because I don't.....

Disclaimer: Only A/As 5 girls belong to me, the rest are Tolkien's

Dedication: Sunshine, and ME132 because your review was so inspiring and lovely!

Thanks are at the bottom......

Chapter 2

"Death is just another path, one that we all must take..."

The words that Gandalf had spoken so many years ago had been all that had kept Arwen going, getting her through the grief and hollowness of each day with nothing to do but mourn the loss of her husband. And now they would take her home. Home, that was, to Estel's arms.

She was ready to travel her next path. She had wanted to ever since the final breath had been whipped from his lungs, but now she was ready. She had done the things she had to do, attended the funeral, kept up appearances; all that was left was saying goodbye.

Her children were gathered where she had told them to be. Eldarion feared he knew what his Naneth wanted to say to them, that this would be the last time he ever saw her, but he hoped against hope that he was wrong. He wasn't ready to be a king, not yet. Especially not when he was expected to live up to what his father meant to Gondor.

His sisters, it seemed, didn't have a clue what was going on. He knew they had all noticed the strange behaviour of their Naneth, but they didn't appear to have put two and two together. Before he could think any more on it, Arwen appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

She was still more radiant than any in Minas Tirith, save perhaps her daughters, but the light that once shone in her eyes had gone. Her face was paler than it had ever been, and dark circles framed her eyes. She no longer cared for her hair or body it seemed, and she was thin, and frequently ill.

But soon it would all be over, all the pain and sorrow, the feeling of being ripped in half every time she so much as heard Estel's name spoken. The whole palace reminded her of him, places they sat together, paths they took moonlit strolls alone, rooms they entered only once, and most of all their chambers. She could not even bear to remove the clothes he had left on the end of the bed from the night before he passed away.

She hated the word 'dead', refused to say it. It seemed so final, absolute, irreversible. According to Gandalf, the deceased just lingered on in another part of the world. A part Arwen was only too keen to get to.

"My children," she said, her once melodious voice now flat and monotonous. "I- I have asked you to come here because.... because it is time for me to say goodbye."

"Goodbye?" Elbereth asked. She was the youngest at seventeen, and had been hit the hardest when she lost her Adar.

Arwen smiled sadly, and for a second almost regretted her desicion to leave. But her hand ascended to her neck where the Evenstar hung, and she saw Estel, mere hours before he passed away to a better place, insisting that she take back the necklace, forcing it into her hand with the little strength he could muster.

"I do not want it," she had protested. "It was a gift. It is yours."

He had smiled and said, "I give you this back with a promise. A promise that one day I will find you again, and you can return it to me. You can return to me."

And Arwen held the jewel in her hand and knew what she had to do. The choice between her children and her husband seemed an impossible one, but one she had always known the answer to.

"I cannot live like this," she said suddenly, desperately fighting the tears that she knew would soon break through the fragile mask she wore. "I cannot bear it any longer. Without him I am nothing. We were two halves of the same whole. And by myself there is just no reason that I can see for me to pretend. I am so, so cold," she continued, almost as if she were talking to herself. "There is no light, no warmth, no colour. Just cold, black, empty darkness. And I am drowning in it, so deeply that I have to escape now or I may never be able to. There are knives everywhere, and with every breath I take another one tears my heart apart. I am bleeding, but not enough, never enough. There is a wall infront of me, with a small window. I can see him on the other side, watching, waiting for me. But I can't get over the wall, I can't reach him. Sometimes instead of climbing I try knocking the wall down, and I always try so hard, but it is too big, too strong. I throw myself against it until my body aches and my hands bleed, but it is never enough." Her tears had yet to fall, but she was too numb to notice. "Why should I keep on trying when I know there is no chance of success? Why can't anyone see what I see, feel what I feel, live like I live? Why should I struggle through every day, unfeeling, exhausted, alone? Why should I be forced to live when the other half of my soul has gone somewhere else, somewhere I should be allowed to follow? Why am I not allowed? Why?"

She looked around for a moment, confused when she saw her children's faces staring straight back at her. Then she realised she had actually said aloud what she thought ever second of every day. With a sharp jolt she was pulled back into reality, and that was when the mask disappeared. She ran at her children, pulling them all together in a desperate embrace, holding onto something, anything, to keep her feet in the present. And reluctant as she was to do this, her family had a right to know why she was deserting them. She couldn't - wouldn't - let them suffer any more than they had to.

Reluctantly she stepped back from them and wiped her tears away with a shaky hand. "Your f-" She took a deep breath to compose herself the little she could before continuing. "Your father told me to- to tell you some things, just before he..." She could not bear to say 'passed away', but her children were already well aware of what she meant. "I should have said them before, but I..." Again she trailed off, lost for a reason to justify what she knew was unjustifiable. She had been selfish in keeping Estel's last words all to herself, deceiving his final wishes of small comforts to his children. She had thought that those last moments belonged just to the two of them, and telling others, even their children, would be intruding on such a private moment as seemingly to make it less special.

But she had realised that the beginning and the end were not as important as what happened in the middle. They had lived blissfully together for over a century, and had over one hundred years of memories, only a tenth of which their children could remember. She had no right to hold onto words which were meant for them also, words which might provide comfort at last from the grief. She owed it to them, and she owed it to her husband.

"Eldarion." She stepped towards him and tenderly brushed his long hair out of his face. "My son. I know you are tired of hearing this, but your are so like your father." She managed a smile. "Not just in appearance but in heart and mind. You are strong and wise, and the woman who steals your heart, whoever she may be, will have my blessing, and herself shall be blessed. Your father told me to tell you this: he was so proud of you, in every way, and he thought you will make a better king than any Gondor has ever seen." Eldarion shook his head, but Arwen continued. "He was- is right. I never want you ever to believe otherwise." She kissed his forehead and he desperately wiped away his tears. "It was not just your father you made proud. I love you, and I will never leave you, no matter what."

Before the real depth of her words hit her, she quickly moved onto her daughters, fighting every second for composure and the strength to say what needed saying. She knew once this was out of the way, she would finally be able to leave this life. "Amelí, Maia, Silmarien, Alielle, Elbereth." She looked at each of them in turn as she said their names.

Amelí was the image of her Naneth, from her haunting blue eyes to her long dark hair, the curve of her lips and the perfectly defined shape of her body. In character she was gentle and kind, every bit the princess, but she had another side that showed only in private, and, rare that it was, no one wanted to be on the wrong side of Amelí when she was angry.

Maia had her Adar's eyes and personality - she was strong-willed and often resorted to sarcasm as her last form of defence, but she was also the most loving and generous of her siblings, and would do anything for anyone, no matter the price. When she received news of her Adar's passing, the first thing she did was rush to comfort her family, before even thinking about her own feelings.

When the twins were younger, they were indistinguishable from one another, but as they grew, Arwen saw clearly how Silmarien and Alielle were so different. Silmarien, the elder of the two, was quiet and reserved, never raising her voice and always the most reluctant to join in an argument. Alielle, however, was loud and outspoken. She deserved trouble, but always managed to place the blame onto someone else, something Estel used to say she got from her Naneth. She was forever seducing men, then breaking their hearts the very next day. Unpredictable was the best word to describe the King and Queen's fourth daughter, lucky also. She had survived her birth by a hair's breath, and her name was shared by the young nurse who had saved her life.

And finally there was Elbereth. Like her namesake, she truly was Queen of the Stars in the eyes of everone who knew her. Beauty was not a word strong enough to describe her. Of all their children, Elbereth was the one who looked equally like both her Naneth and Adar. She was quite a bit younger than her siblings, an age gap of five years between herself and the twins, Eldarion her elder by twelve years. She had come as a bit of a surprise to her parents, but they loved her all the same. Spoiled by her family, especially her Adar, she became his 'Little Princess', and his death hit her hardest because she had always been protected by him, and suddenly became so vulnerable.

Of all her children, Arwen hated the thought of leaving Elbereth the most. She was young and knew nothing of the harshness of the world around her. Again Arwen's hand strayed to the pendant around her neck, and all the doubts she had faded away into the thoughts of just seeing her beloved Estel once more. Her choice was made. There was no going back now.

"Your father had a message for you all, 'his girls'," she said quitely, "part of which you have already succeeded in without knowing it. He told me to tell you that you must never give up. Whatever your dreams, they can only be achieved if you don't lose hope. He said that he loved- loves you all, and that you must especially look after me. In that you all will have made him proud. I think he knows how you have made my days easier just by being here, but I will not neglect to mention how well you've done when I see him."

"See him? Are you-? I don't understand." Silmarien said what all her siblings were thinking.

"Naneth," Amelí almost whispered, "Adar... Adar's gone." She swallowed and awaited Arwen's reaction with baited breath.

To all of their surprise, she smiled. "He is gone, yes, but he is not lost. Many many years ago, I think only you," she looked at Amelí, "And Eldarion may remember, your Adar and I fell out. But it was serious, not some petty argument. And after we made up, we vowed never to let each other go again. Do you think we would let something like death stand in our way?" She looked at each of her children and saw just then how young they all were. "I have lived on this earth for near on three thousand years," she told them, "And if there is one thing I have learnt, it's that love - true love - lasts forever. What your Adar and I share is... I cannot even begin to describe it. One day you will each find true love, and you will know what I am talking about."

She was surprised that she had not begun to cry again, but in truth she knew that she simply had no more tears left. Enough had been shed, and there would be many more to come, but she was determined not to let any more of her hurt fall in vain. Grief wracked her body, but hope now began to seep into her heart, knowing she was so close to Estel. She was letting go, of her life, of her children. And now she was free.

"I leave you now because it is my time to take the path that was laid before my feet many years ago. I gave myself to your Adar, and in doing so I have always known that my end would come some day in this life." She kissed each of her daughters, unmoved by their tear-stained faces. "My darling girls, I love you all so much. And remember," she said as she turned to look upon them for the last time in this life. "Death is just another path, one that we all must take. I will always be with you."

And with a smile she turned and was gone, leaving her children to comfort each other in the wake of their worst nightmare. Their role models, protectors, parents were both gone. No one would ever love them in the same way their Naneth and Adar did. They had lost a piece of their hearts, and would never get it back.

........................

Huge thanks go to:

Cerridwen: hehe thanx! I love all your reviews! I must get round to updating more though, because you get about 10 times the amount of reviews from me as the other way around!! Oh I love reviews! ;)

ME132: Well, I tried, but it was all fanfics fault! sorry! I loved your review..... thank you so much!

viviana: thank you!

lindahoyland: yeah, my heaven seems to be along the same lines as what you said... about the thought... we shall see..... thanks!

Evenstar Dreams: cheers! :)

aimz-246: glad I could be of service to your wanting-a-fic-with-this-theme needs!!!

grumpy: well, thats what I intend.... thank you!

Elegant Courture: thank you!

Malathwen: thank you, I don't think death can ever be happy... unless its someone really evil... but thats still sad.... oh just ignore me!